Battle of Leyte Gulf

The Battle of Leyte Gulf occurred from 23 to 26 October 1944 when Imperial Japanese Navy admiral Takeo Kurita sent a Japanese fleet of 67+ ships to attack the US Navy in the Philippines from three sides; one through the San Bernardino Strait in the central Philippines, one through the Surigao Strait in the south, and one as a decoy from the northeast of the islands. The Americans routed the San Bernardino Strait fleet, and Admiral William Halsey Jr. headed to attack the decoy fleet; unaware of Halsey's departure, the other US fleet attacked the Japanese in the Surigao Strait. The battle went well until the fleet from the San Bernardino Strait turned around to attack the American fleet in the south. The Americans fought desperately, and Admiral Kurita decided to withdraw when he feared that he was being lured into a trap. In the following days, Halsey and his fleet returned and helped the other US ships in counterattacking, nad they sunk four Japanese carriers and 24 other ships. The battle was the largest naval battle in history, with the Americans using 300 ships and 1,500 aircraft to fight over 67 Japanese ships and over 300 aircraft. 6 American ships were lost and 3,000 men were killed or wounded, while Japan lost 28 ships and 12,500 dead. Some of the Japanese dead were kamikaze pilots, suicide bombers who used planes as blunt weapons against US ships. Yukio Seki carried out his attack in the battle, the first to see kamikaze attacks during World War II.